Convincing Your Parents To:

[washer111]

Allow you to purchase/acquire a vintage dishwasher.

Some members may recall my discussion of early 1990's Asko dishwashers that can be found quite readily in these parts. I'm interested in acquiring one, since I'd assume parts are easy enough to come by, and because there are other around that I *COULD* scrap/cannibalise for parts. This would be the starting point, and from there I would MAYBE acquire more machines or move the Asko onwards in the world...

What points should I/Could I make to help with the acquisition of one of these machines? My first is that we *COULD* "modify" the machine to be portable (in its own portable covering with wheels instead of levelling feet), and we'd get extra bench space from it. The only other is that we "have a replacement dishwasher" if the DishDrawer was to ever "conk out."

Any opinions, thoughts on the subject?

 

[washer111]

No thoughts?

I'm trying to think of "excuses" for this - that way the parents might have me out of their hair for sometime each weekend of afternoon (or something!) - except, I'll be using water/electricity in the process (no more than a computer running for 4-5 hours, at least!)

 

[combo52]

Asking your parents to allow you to get a vintage DW

It is hard to answer this somewhat personal question when you tell us nothing about yourself, we don't even know your name and you could be 55 years old and living at you parents home.

 

[supersuds]

It's better than bringing home an old car to work on. Threaten to do that, and then "compromise."

 

[washer111]

@combo52

No, No!

I prefer not to reveal that sort of detail, as my name has a unique spelling, and thus makes me more "findable." I am also not inclined to reveal my age, as that (along with even my first name) leaves me more succeptible to "attack."

I'll put it this way, I am just about to hit what most Australian's would consider "Senior" at High School, that is, entering the final years...

Now, that is quite enough of this subject - I am not even going to attempt to say anything else... Going back on topic:

@supersuds
Sounds pretty reasonable, except I'm not particularly mechanically inclined (ouch! I only do a cooking and sewing class at school). I can fix a water softener, computer and minor stuff, but when it comes to Cars, I think my parents would know full well that I'm bluffing!

I'll try and figure out some sort of variation to that one...

 

[mattl]

Well if I surmise correctly you are in you mid teens, that is a much different story.  If you have some space to tinker with the machines fine, maybe fix one up and sell it showing your parents you aren't a slacker.  They might respect your hobby more then.

 

 

Not quite sure how someone is going to"attack" you if you post your age, but whatever....

 

[supersuds]

If you're a teenager, your parents might secretly be thrilled if the worst thing you do is want to fix a dishwasher. It's a useful life skill that could save you (and them!) a lot of money in the future.

I don't know how your schools work but there seem to be a lot of creative ways to earn class credit over here. Is there any way you could get some kind of vocational class credit for doing a mechanical project?

 

[drh4683]

Ok, I've been in this predicament many times when I still lived with my mom and dad. In my case, it was the necessity to bring home vintage TV sets. Granted I was a little kid when I first showed interest in electronics, so it didn't seem unreasonable that I wanted to evolve in the hobby and collect TV's when I was in my early teens.

My mom and dad were basically against me bringing home others peoples "used" appliances into "their" home. I had to come up with a creative way to get around this without resorting to "sneeking" things in (which I still had to do from time to time). If I told them the truth, that I wanted to buy an old TV at the resale shop or estate sale, then the answer was automatically "NO". I couldn't convince them, a radio was OK, but TV's were tough. Very tough. So there was no other way around this but to lie. Yes, lie. A good made up story gets you in. You're not lying to be disrespectful to your parents, but to get the opportunity to enjoy a harmless and fun hobby. That's how I looked at it.

I started to bring home TV's and when they questioned me and got upset, I would tell them I was fixing it for a friend at school and that I'd make money on the repair. Suddenly, it was OK to bring these things into the house. Straight into the basement they'd go. The basement was pretty much converted into my own domain as my hobby progressed. My mom and dad didn't really care or show any interest in my hobby of TV and electronics and that being said, they usually wouldn't remember to ask me how the "repair" was going. So basically, the TV would be forgotten about, but I was able to get it in the house peacefully and then it was safe and sound. There were times I'd have to say "well, they don't want it fixed now" or "it's beyond economical repair". Then I'd say I'm "keeping it" and then it was no big deal as they realized it wasn't really in their way. But for some reason, if I went out of my way to find a TV on my own, bring it in the house then there were all sorts of problems. Mom and dad eventually got used to it, and while in my later years of living at home (mid 20's) they tolerated the TV hobby as the norm with me and they didn't say much about it. We can relate appliances to this almost identically; big things that take up alot of room. Basically as long as I kept everything downstairs all was well, but they probably wished I did other things with my time. Once you get your own house, its a dream come true to be able to enjoy your hobby with no constraints. So basically, what Im saying is, you have to come up with a story to get your foot in the door with your parents, like in my case with the "i'm fixing it for someone" story, then they will eventually get used to it and not care because they'll realize you could be doing worse things with your time. It worked for me (fortunately).

 

[kenmoreguy89]

mmmhhhh That is an hard question to give here....

Well first of all how old are you? I don't understand what's the why you do not want to say that.....
You need to get the help of your parents with this I suppose unless you can do everything by yourself I mean buy, pick it up and work on, but at this point the problem would not exist right?
I don't know you or your parents so it is very difficult for everyone to give you a response, hope you can understand this, I think you don't need an "excuse" anyway,why not being cleat with them "Mom, Dad I want to try to fix a dishwasher as I'd like to get used with, you know, I'm thinking I would like to become a etc....".
Did you try to ask it to them?
Now I don't know yours but many parents would be happy to support such an "enterprise", if I did understand well and you're a teenager in mid of the teens I think they must be proud of it as I know many people of your age just care of videogames etc...
But again it is very difficult to suggest you something for us here, not knowing you and your family......
What I can suggest you is to be sincere.....
I'm still wondering why you'd have to get some "excuse", if you're not clear you can't get much help, again, is difficult to understand what's the problem with it, why you think your parents would not be okay with that? Did you already ask this to them? If yes what was their response? If not why you'd need an excuse then?

 

[washer111]

@supersuds

Sadly, I don't think our school system allows the same sorts of credits you guys get. But you are right in the money department. Sadly however, owning a DishDrawer means any computer related repairs are completely out of the question (I blew up a PC in 2005 as a 8 year old), although I can do pump replacements (Its really easy...)

@drh4683
Seems like a nice little "lying" system there! The trouble with me is, I get quite "bubbly" (if you like) when I tell lies, and the fact my parents know I wouldn't fix something like that for them means they'd see right through me... When I got my Dad's old Work laptop (inherited from his work, an old, outdated model), I was told I had to "get rid of" the other old desktop system I got free from my school, and was running Windows 98 on at the time (2009). I was "limited" to two computers... Apparently they'd take-up "too much space" (I was thinking "Its a laptop, what difference does it make?")
But you certainly make a good point. Now... If only we had a basement (lol). I suppose the outdoors is good enough, or maybe the kitchen - I was thinking of maybe getting a friend to build a cabinet to the correct dimensions with Castor wheels placed on the cabinet, so I could say "You'll get more benchspace and a spare dishwasher!"

@kenmoreguy89
If you read carefully above, you'll be able to gauge my age ;D
OK, if I had their support, we (or I) would have a machine by now for sure. The trouble is comvincing them. You see, I can get models which are or aren't working (or somewhere in between), if I get a "working" model then there really isn't anything to do except run the good ol' Sunday Wash in it.
My parents question the point of that - and I feel pretty stupid when I ask "can I have one," then start to think what I'll do with it. Its all well and good having it, but to them, why have a 2nd dishwasher when we've already got a "working" one, why waste "all that space, water and energy," and "why do you need it" (because I want it doesn't work, believe me!) They are pretty tight in that respect, and with most other stuff.

You see, my other dilemma is that I plan on going somewhere high in life, for example a Doctor or Specialist of some sort. Practising repairing dishwashers (sadly) won't make sense. Even if a say that it'll mean less time playing video games (which I seldom do) or being on the computer "reading," the dishwasher only takes 60 minutes to run, and we don't make lots of dishes (we make enough to run the DishDrawer daily. Thats it!).

I suppose the idea of an "excuse" as I call it was to come up with a way to weasel something like this into my life... Sadly, that seems to becoming more and more distant. I know people with a slightly poor performing dishwasher, which I gave a spring clean last year around this time last year. I'm going to try giving it some more "work" since I know its not a dud. Sadly, I can't have that machine since it is a "government" property, and those people work with the government.

Finally, I will say, I've tried being honest - Dad built a brick wall, and Mum was posted to the watch tower (in essence). The problem is we live in a pretty small house (around 900sq. ft. by my measurements) and dont' have lots of storage, sure we have the garage, but there's already plenty in there from our old house which was probably double the size.
So it seems I'm out of luck... Oh well, not long till I get my own house. Uni ain't that far away (YAY!)